


At Peace

by Self_Indulgent_TMNT



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 18:19:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10836765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Self_Indulgent_TMNT/pseuds/Self_Indulgent_TMNT
Summary: This was a request from KarenGfanboy. Based off the plot of Logan.The Doctor and a now old, frail and forgetful Jack Harckness are barely surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. Then a girl calling herself Me shows up needing help, and despite reservations, they agree to help her. It's time to be a hero one last time. But maybe it's not just Me who needed saving.





	At Peace

**Author's Note:**

> I have a sort of love-hate relationship with this fic, there have been some fun times writing it and there has also been some frustration and anger as the words simply REFUSED TO COME. Hope you enjoy it all the same!

The apocalypse is supposed to mean the end of the world. But there’s something we all forget, that’s the post-apocalypse. The world is dead, dry and empty and only a few people are left, and most of those you don’t want to run into. This is the inevitable destination for immortals, regenerators and those they refuse to let go.  
A figure picks their way across the landscape, unflattering beard making them look almost as old as they really are, his eyes are cold beneath the hood of a hoodie which is almost as invincible as he is. Without a word and with barely a thought he makes his way into a derelict warehouse, dipping underneath the sheet covering his battered box, barely blue after all this time – repainting it has hardly been at the top of his list of priorities and when he did find time, the colour hardly seemed to matter anymore. The TARDIS is cold when he enters, but he isn’t surprised, it’s usually cold now. The lights are on, though, and that does surprise him since it’s usually dark as well as cold. He tries to remember how long it’s been since the faithful old ship went anywhere or anywhen, this building wasn’t abandoned that’s for sure.  
He kicks a panel, foot angled in just the right way to kickstart the heating, literally kickstart he thinks to himself and the thought almost causes a smile to grace the face barely changed since the day he first wore it. There’s no longer any question about who frowned him this face, he’s barely smiled in years and he has no intention of starting now.  
“Why do you have to kick her?” A voice calls from a darker corner and the frail, bent frame of Jack Harkness stumbles into view. He’s old now, really old, and he looks it.  
“You should be in bed” the Doctor says.  
“Why do you have to kick her?!” Jack insists.  
“Because it’s the only way to get the heating back on, you know that, you’re the one who discovered it” he replies, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Jack looks confused.  
“I did? I don’t remember that”  
There’s a lot he doesn’t remember. There’s a lot he can’t do, too. Jack’s dying, that’s something else he forgets on a regular basis. Well, the Doctor assumes he’s dying, the man’s supposed to be immortal but how else is he supposed to explain the frailty, the pains he can’t find a way to cure. The world’s ended, immortality doesn’t seem to make a difference anymore.  
Without another word, the Doctor guides Jack back to the makeshift bed in the corner, feeding him some pills with the insistence they’ll make him feel better, even though nothing seems to help him anymore. Jack does as he’s told, more like a child than the ancient he really is. He slumps back into his pillows and the Doctor takes a seat beside him, picking up a book which he’s been pretending to read for a few days now. He’s not even finished the first chapter, reading is another of those things which seems pointless now.  
“Where is their god now?” Jack asks the darkness, and the Doctor looks up.  
“Sorry?”  
“Everywhere I ever went, there were people who told me there was a god. How can there be? Look around, look at all of this, where is their god now?”  
The Doctor puts his book down.  
“People used to think I was a god” he says, quietly. Jack snorts derisively.  
“You’re not a god, Doctor”  
“I know that, but they wouldn’t believe me”  
“There is no god, Doctor. For a while I thought there might be, but no. There’s no god. Living through the apocalypse taught me that”  
Living. The Doctor would hardly call this living. Surviving maybe, although it doesn’t really feel like they’re doing that either. The life is draining out of both of them. It’s not really all that unpleasant though, their existence is an almost pleasing schedule, consisting of things they must do for necessity and rituals they must do because they’re both more than a little crazy now. Occasionally there were visitors, a young woman named Bill visited at irregular intervals, knocking on the door in her own special pattern and coming in without waiting for permission. She’d clean a little, complain at the state he kept things in, and she’d sit with Jack for a while, holding his fragmented consciousness for a few hours before leaving again, explaining that she had to get back. Who she was going back to, the Doctor was never sure, he’d never cared enough to listen. Maybe he should have listened, years ago he would have done. There were lots of things he would have done years ago. It was hard to care now, there didn’t seem to be much point in it.  
“Maybe there is a god” he mused aloud, really more for his sake than Jack’s, “maybe they’re just not here”  
But Jack doesn’t hear, he’s drifted out of his moment of lucidity and is far away, in a world of his own imagining where nothing made any sense but still made more sense than reality. The Doctor sighed, getting up from his chair and leaving the TARDIS to soak in the last few rays of sunlight for the day. He watched the sun slowly dip below the horizon, but before the light could fully fade a movement caught his eye. A small figure was running from cover to cover, trying not to be seen but failing. She froze when the Doctor looked at her, dark eyes opening wide. Something in the Doctor’s time-hardened heart softened, like she reminded him of someone. Or rather many someones, as she seemed to embody something about many people he’d met in his life.  
“Who are you?” he asked, the brief moment of sentimentality not quite making it to his voice. She paused for a long moment, evidently debating if she should answer.  
“Me” she said, eventually.  
“Yes, you”  
“I am Me”  
“Do you have another name”  
“I am Me”  
The Doctor wasn’t entirely sure how far he was willing to take this conversation, and he never got to find out as what sounded like a gunshot shattered the quiet and the girl, Me, froze, her face a mask of horror.  
“What was that?” he asked, but he didn’t get a response as the girl sprinted past him and into the warehouse behind. He followed just in time to see her disappear into the TARDIS. He groaned and ran after her, entering the blue box to see her running over to Jack’s corner.  
“Hey, you can’t be here!” he called, following. Jack was awake at this point and watched curiously as the girl threw herself under his bed, curling up and hiding.  
“What’s going on?” Jack asked “was that a gunshot? Who is this?”  
“I don’t know, yes and I don’t know” the Doctor replied, grabbing the girl’s wrist and pulling her out from under the bed. She struggled but eventually submitted. He stood her in front of him and her jaw set in a stubborn line. “Who are you?” he asked harshly.  
“I am Me”  
“Yes, I get that, but where do you come from?”  
‘Me’ looked distressed at that. It didn’t take a genius to work out that wherever she came from, it was nowhere good.  
“Was that gunshot something to do with you?”  
This was answered by a nod.  
“Why are they after you?”  
She shook her head violently, either she didn’t know or she didn’t want to talk about it. The girl dragged a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it, pointing emphatically at a spot. Upon closer inspection, it was a map, and she was pointing to a spot in some mountains.  
“Is that where you came from?”  
She shook her head, pointing from her to the spot.  
“Is that where you’re going?”  
An excited nod. She then pointed from the Doctor to the map.  
“You want me to take you?”  
A nod.  
“Nope. No way. I’ve got my own life here, thanks”  
Jack laughed at that. Clearly he didn’t count what they had going on as a ‘life’. Me kept pointing between the map and the man. There were more gunshots, closer this time, and she cowered away, hiding behind the bed this time instead of under it.  
“Stay here” the Doctor said, “I’ll deal with this”  
‘Deal with this’ ended up meaning ‘lie directly to the strangers’ faces and point them in a direction the girl didn’t go in’, which he did with an air of gruff resentment which suggested he didn’t want to be disturbed. And it worked. The group of shady strangers in dark masks with large guns thanked him in equally gruff tones and headed off towards the ruins that were not far from the warehouse. Why he protected the girl, he wasn’t quite sure. He wandered back into the TARDIS, now well and truly bored of all this.  
“Right, those ruins will keep them occupied for a couple of hours, should be enough time for you to get yourself out of here. You’re welcome. Now bugger off”  
The girl cowered a little further into the corner and shook her head.  
“Come on, get out of my TARDIS”  
He made a move to grab her, but was stopped by Jack. “Doctor, wait!” the old man cried, “you don’t do this. You help people. I remember a man who would’ve done anything he could to make sure she was safe”  
“I’m not that man”  
“But you could be. We’re not doing anything here, we haven’t done anything in years. We have vehicles, we have time. Come on, let’s be heroes one last time”  
That awoke something in the Doctor, some corner of his brain he’d hidden away. It was impulsive and excitable and most of all it wanted to help people. He looked at the girl, too young to survive in this world on her own, and he looked at Jack, fragile and broken, but more determined than he’d been about anything in years. His mind made itself up.  
“Alright, fine, but if this goes wrong then I reserve the right to say I told you so. Me, help Jack gather some stuff”, he took the map from Me and headed off to gather some items himself, basic things like food and medicine. He riffled through draws he hadn’t touched in a long time, filled with items which brought back faint half-memories, things he knew had meaning but could only remember brief snatches of why. It was in one of these draws, stuffed right at the back in a battered box, that he found it. He’d left it there in anger, wanting to forget about the way things used to be, but once he opened that small box everything flooded back and he remembered who and what he used to be. It was his old sonic screwdriver, broken beyond repair but somehow still faintly shiny in the dimming TARDIS lights. The world made a little more sense when he was holding it and he felt that old flame sputter back into existence. ‘Yes’, he thought, ‘a chance to be a hero one last time.’  
The moment passed but he was no longer quite so set against this journey. He placed the sonic carefully back into its box, it was broken and useless, he’d got what he needed from it anyhow. He grabbed his things and went out to the car he and Jack had acquired (stolen) years ago, it was rusty and uncomfortable but still in working order. Ten minutes later Jack emerged, leaning on Me who was carrying a bag. She helped him into the car and strapped herself in next to him without a word. “You don’t say much, do you” he remarked but the girl remained silent. “Fine, I get the message. Let’s get this suicide mission started.”

They drove for a while in silence, but after at some point Jack started talking. He wasn’t talking to anyone in particular and often it was quite difficult to work out what he was talking about, mostly he was describing memories from his youth, the only things he could really remember with any clarity anymore. The Doctor tuned it out, having heard it all a hundred times before and knowing that each time it came out differently, but Me listened intently, leaning against Jack’s side as he talked about a world she couldn’t even imagine. It was peaceful, in a strange sort of way, not really thinking about anything as the ruined scenery slipped by in a blur. They stopped a few times to siphon petrol from abandoned cars on the roadside, but other than that they drove solidly in the rough direction of the spot Me pointed at on the map, continuing well into the night until they eventually pulled over on the side of the road. Me and Jack had fallen asleep hours ago, so the Doctor allowed himself to sleep until first light.  
When he awoke, he wished he hadn’t. A few hundred meters away, and approaching at a jog, were a group of people in similar masks to the group yesterday, armed with a collection of guns he recognised as being from various species, all of which were large and all of which were incredibly deadly. He didn’t think any more about it, just got the car moving as quickly as he could, jerking his two passengers awake.  
“What the hell’s going on?” Jack asked.  
“Some of Me’s little ‘friends’ have arrived” the Doctor replied, just as the car was hit with a shower of bullets as well as a couple of energy blasts from the blaster guns in the group. “This car can’t take much more of a beating”, that comment was accompanied by another hail of gunshots, and then a rather demoralising ‘thunk, hissss’ as something in the car’s workings failed. The Doctor looked up to see another vehicle barrelling towards them, this one was armoured and had several people sticking guns out of the windows. He barely had time to yell “Hold on!” as he swerved dramatically, skirting past the car and slamming his foot to the floor, desperate to gain every bit of distance from the machine that he could before it failed. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very far. The car was slowing and the Doctor new he didn’t have long, the assailants would likely have regrouped and be only a short distance away. He glanced around, desperate for some sort of out, and his eyes fell on an abandoned farm a short distance from the road. He had no idea how it could help, but it had to be better than barrelling down the road in a dying car. He used the last of the car’s life to get them there, parking and running to the boot, grabbing the few things they’d brought with them, rifling through his bag to find something he’d hidden there.  
He pulled out the plasma gun and threw the bag over his shoulder.  
“Inside, now” he barked, guiding his charges into a nearby building. Once inside the rundown house he dragged some furniture in front of the door, desperate to form some form of defence.  
“What are you doing?” Jack asked, slumping against a wall.  
“Hiding” came the reply.  
“It won’t do any good”  
“Well what would you have me do then?” the Doctor snapped. Silence, for far too many seconds, then gunshots.  
“If we stay put then they’ll find us” Jack said, voice resigned to his words. “Take the girl, Doctor, sneak out the back”  
“We’ll never move fast enough”  
“You will without me”  
“What?”, the Doctor couldn’t quite process what Jack was saying, “You’re coming with us”  
“No, I’m not. You’re going to give me that gun and then you’re going to take the girl and get her safe”  
The Doctor was about to protest but Jack smiled tiredly. “I’m old, Doctor, and I’m no good for anything anymore. We both know I’m dying. So please, let me be a hero one last time. Let me go out with a bang”  
The Doctor stalled, unable to think fast enough to come up with a way to get everyone away safe. Jack walked over to him, his movements slow and difficult, and he placed a hand on the Doctor’s arm.  
“Doctor, I don’t want to waste away in the corner of some dying time machine. If I’m going to die then it might as well be now, doing something worthwhile”  
The Doctor wanted to argue, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t deny Jack the right to choose the time and manner of his own end. He took the gun and handed it to Jack, locking eyes with him for a moment. “I’ve never been good at endings” he said, apologetically.  
“Be the hero I know you are, Doctor”  
“I’m not half the hero you are”  
Jack smiled, a brief hint of his old self showing through to relish in the compliment. “You’ve got a point there, now go”  
Jack pushed Me towards the grizzled old timelord gently. “look after him, kid”  
Me nodded, starting to pull the Doctor away as Jack positioned himself to cause the bad guys hell one last time. The Doctor let himself be dragged, not certain where he was going but willing to let Me guide him. She seemed to know where she was going, although how the Doctor had no idea. He tried to tune out the gunshots fading into the distance as Me pulled him into a maze of abandoned buildings. They walked for hours, the sun glaring overhead, until it sank below the line created by the broken buildings of the ghost town they’d made their way into. Without a word, Me guided him to a half-collapsed house and pushed him into the non-broken bit.  
“We sleep here” she said, slumping onto a dusty sofa. The Doctor flopped into a matching armchair, coughing at the cloud of dust it sent up.  
“Me, is there something you aren’t telling me”  
“Much” she replied.  
“Can you tell me at least some of it?”  
“Yes”  
“Will you?”  
“Run”  
“What?”  
Me looked at him, young eyes somehow containing far more wisdom than maybe they should. He felt as though there was far more to this girl than met the eye, like so many other girls he’d met in his time. She was the latest in a long line of girls he’d met and knew would never fully leave him  
“Run, you clever boy, and remember”  
The Doctor froze, staring at her and hearing the words ring around his head. “How do you know that?”  
“She told it to me”  
“She? Who?”  
The girl looked at him, her expression something close to pity. “You know who, Doctor”  
“Clara… But that isn’t possible”  
“And yet it happened”  
“Where is she?”  
Me shook her head. “Not here, gone. But she sent me to find you”  
“Why?”  
“Because she said you can save me. She said you’re a hero and a legend and, most importantly, the Doctor”  
“Why do you need saving, Me?”  
Her lips pursed, she considered for a moment and then lay down, closing her eyes. The conversation was over, there would be no more answers. Now was the time to sleep. But the Doctor could not sleep, not after that conversation. Who the hell was this girl really? How did she know Clara? Surely it was impossible, it had been so long since he’d even thought of the impossible girl who had once travelled with him. And now here he was, after the end of the world with a girl he didn’t really know who claimed to have spoken to her. One thing was for sure, he was not gonna let anything happen to Me now. Clara had entrusted her to him, and he would not let Clara down.  
Morning came by slowly, the cold night melting into the warm day and the Doctor must have fallen asleep because at some point he woke up to the sound of humming. Me was merrily searching through their bags, putting together the closest thing to breakfast she could manage. When she noticed he was awake, she handed him the selection of food without a word, clearly her talkative mood from last night had been only temporary. He matched her silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. He felt protective of the mysterious girl now. He’d lost Jack to a blaze of glory the type the immortal had always wanted, but he was still trying to work out if that was ok and he guessed that when he made a decision the answer would be no, and now this girl was all he had to cling onto. He’d follow her to the end of the universe if he had to.  
As it was, he only had to follow her to a mountain range that was just about in sight. Me took his hand, although this time it was less to lead him and more to be close to him. She needed him as much as he now needed her.  
They walked again, always walking and half aware that there might still be people following them. Meters melted into miles and slowly those vague mountain outlines became more solid shapes. The Doctor started to make out green, a pleasant break from the constant sun-baked earth he was used to.  
“The forest covers the whole mountain range” Me explained, “there’s more life there than in the whole of the surrounding landscape for miles”  
“Is there somewhere specific there you need to be?”  
“A village, small and friendly. It’s safe there”  
“How do you know it’s safe?”  
“Clara said”  
Ah, well that was enough for the Doctor. They fell back into silence. One foot in front of the other, eating away slowly at the miles. The heat died away as they passed into the shadow of the mountains. Their water supply was running low, but that didn’t matter. They were nearly there.  
When the Doctor stepped on grass for the first time in years, he almost wanted to cry. He couldn’t understand how this place had been so close to him for so long and he hadn’t known,  
“No one knows it’s here” Me explained, even though he hadn’t voiced the thought “that’s why it’s safe. If you don’t know, you’ll never know. You have to be told”  
That seemed impossible, but so did everything else so that was ok. They looked up at the path ahead of them, feeling a faint breeze cool their faces.  
“Alright Me, ready for the final leg?” the Doctor asked.  
“Ashildr”  
“Sorry?”  
“My name is Ashildr” Ashildr said, looking up at him “and I haven’t been entirely honest”  
“How so?”, the Doctor was a little concerned at that.  
“I am in danger, that’s true enough, those people were hunting me and I will be safe here. But I didn’t need you to get me here. You needed me to get you here”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“Clara sent me to find you because you should never be alone and Jack was dying. He got the death he wanted, the death of a hero, and now you get the life you deserve”  
“I’m sorry Me” he paused, correcting himself “Ashildr, but I’ don’t understand”  
“I was sent to save you, Doctor, to give you one final chance at peace”  
Her fingers intertwined with his and she set off on the path, guiding him up to that tiny village in that isolated, secret forest where the people were kind and the nights were peaceful. She guided him into a life where he could finally stop fighting, where he could just let the world be. Where he was safe and he was at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> I am no longer open for requests.
> 
> This was based off KarenGfanboy's request which is as follows:  
> The Doctor (12th) is older now than before, but doesn't look it (timelord aging lol) he's bearded but still wears a hoodie, in a post apocalyptic world, the Tardis is pretty much dead, its often cold little lighting and can't travel. He cares for an older, forgetful and also dying Jack Harkness (his immortality has faded) who is now questioning if God exists. (With this one its up to you if its a believers approach depending on your beliefs, personally I'm a born again Christian) Its a hard life for the pair, with the Doctor getting some help from a young carer called Bill and her boyfriend, the Doctor also misses his wife River, its hard but kind of peaceful Until a youngish mysterious girl (either Ashldir or young Amelia Pond that's up to you which) turns up, she has little experience in life and had just escape some kind of facility. But is now being hunted down and has come to the blue box as she has heard about the Doctor. The Doctor however doesn't want to help her until trouble kicks off.
> 
> He's more brutal than when he was younger and before leaving to take her to safe place gets his old almost destroyed sonic screwdriver and he has a moment with it before leaving. Jack comes along on the road trip but probably dies in the progress. The enemies might have older Cybermen weapons or something like that. The young girl would remind the Doctor of his granddaughter. There would be a scene where the young kid would reveal Clara sent her which the Doctor claims can't have happened and is disturbed by the idea.  
> Maybe a father daughter thing between Doctor and the girl but again that's up to you. Its also up to you how it ends and what you do with the rest of the plot is up to you.


End file.
